


Everything Is Fine

by Varewulf



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Spoilers, Yuri, everything is fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 10:43:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20256829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varewulf/pseuds/Varewulf
Summary: Everything is fine.





	Everything Is Fine

**Author's Note:**

> Everything is fine. I definitely didn't end up crying for like an hour after a certain event. It's not like I needed to invent an AU where things turned out well just to feel better. Everything. Is. Fine.

Jeralt Eisner was in the office of the captain of the Knights of Seiros. It wasn't technically his office any longer. He was technically just helping out the current captain who had gotten old enough that he struggled managing all of his duties. An issue it didn't seem like Jeralt would be facing for a while yet. He knew the captain, of course. He had been a veteran knight back in Jeralt's day, so it was no wonder he had gotten promoted.

While he couldn't say he felt entirely at ease being back at Garreg Mach, he was falling back into the work easily enough. It was distressingly familiar. So he almost wouldn't have minded being even less at ease. There was something going on that he couldn't put his finger on, and he was being kept busy enough that he didn't really have the time to figure it out. Rhea surely had some ulterior motive. He still didn't know what she had done to his child, but he suspected it was part of the reason she had made her a professor of all things. And it seemed like there was some other agenda going on as well, by some group he didn't know. Or possibly several groups.

It was hard to know who to trust. There were not only his misgivings about Rhea, but also all the new faces. How had so many new people arrived in merely 20 years? There was something unsettling about Seteth, for one. Not that he necessarily felt dangerous. Not like Catherine. She was very dangerous, and she reminded him a bit of himself, before... before Byleth. The only one he felt sure he could trust was Alois. And Leonie, but it was not fair putting any burden on one of the students. He'd have to be careful what he told her, and asked of her.

Though there had been one upside. He had seen his daughter's smile for the first time. Raising her on his own had presented several problems, and he couldn't help feeling like he had done a poor job. Sure, Rhea had done something to the child. She had no heartbeat, she had never cried, never displayed emotion. But even with that in mind, surely a competent parent would have been able to turn her into a normal child. He loved his daughter dearly, and the fact that she sometimes barely seemed human was like proof of his failure.

So when she had finally smiled it had been like his whole world had been shook. Seeing that development was the one thing that gave him any doubt about whether he had been right to run away. If they had stayed, what would Byleth have been like?

A knock on the door shook him out of his thoughts.

"Hey, dad."

The door was open, but Byleth had still knocked to announce her arrival.

"Hey, kid. Classes over already?" he asked as he turned towards her. He hadn't exactly been keeping track of time.

Byleth nodded, and stepped into the room. "The students taught me something today. May I show you?"

The corner of Jeralt's mouth turned upwards. "_They_ taught _you_ something? Isn't that a bit backwards?" No response. While she seemed to have picked up his sense of humour in terms of how she joked, she still didn't actually react to _his_ jokes. "Alright, no need to be so formal. Show me."

Byleth stepped right up to her father, put her arms around him as much as she could, then pressed her head against his chest.

Jeralt was stunned, and had no idea how to react.

"It's called a hug," Byleth helpfully informed him. "It's nice."

"Uh..."

His daughter looked up at him with a slight frown. "You're supposed to return it." She squeezed him a little. While she didn't have his build, she was still pretty strong.

"Oh, yeah. Right. Sorry, kid." Jeralt awkwardly put his arms around her. Unlike her, he had no problem reaching all the way around.

"Good."

Jeralt wasn't sure how long they stood there, but eventually Byleth eased her hold, and disentangled herself from the embrace.

"I liked that," she said. "Thanks, dad. But I gotta go check the class schedule now. Later." She headed out of the room, with an air of satisfaction about her.

Jeralt stood there for a while longer, trying to process what had just happened. The kids were certainly having quite the influence on her. A couple of months ago he could have never imagined her capable of such behaviour. Heck, even though it had just happened he still had a hard time imagining it. As if he had just had some bizarre dream.

He could feel something in his eye, and raised his hand to wipe it away.

"What the..."

To his even greater shock, his finger came away wet. He hadn't cried since... the funeral. Even if it was just one tear, that was still really unexpected.

"Never mind what's happening to her," he mumbled. "What's happening to me?"

* * *

Jeralt opened his eyes. He felt weak, and tired. He wasn't sure where he was, nor what had happened. There was someone close by. As his vision started to focus he could see it was a girl. Her green eyes were surrounded by red, as if she had been crying. Her head turned to look right at him.

"Dad! You're awake. Thank goodness."

_Dad?_ Did that mean... Byleth? The features seemed to match, but the eyes, and the hair were wrong. Yet looking into those eyes, and seeing past their colour, he could see the person he had raised.

"I..."

"Please don't talk," she said. "You still need rest. But you'll be fine. Everything is fine now."

Rest didn't seem like a bad idea. It was hard to hold his eyelids up.

* * *

Jeralt was enjoying a cup of coffee. With the war over things had calmed down considerably. Even with the rebuilding efforts, there were days where there just wasn't a lot to do. On the one hand it was boring, but at the same time boredom could be counted as a blessing after everything that had happened. While he had no way of estimating how much life was left in him, maybe considering retirement wasn't the worst idea. Or maybe that would be too much boredom. He'd need a hobby, at least.

"Dad!" Byleth came into the room. She looked worked up for some reason.

"Hey, kid. Is something wrong?" he asked.

Byleth shook her head. "No, not wrong." She fidgeted, and then plopped down in the chair on the other side of the table. "I have news." While she still seemed restrained compared to most people, she was definitely emoting a lot more those days. Yet aside from her seeming excited, Jeralt couldn't get a good read on her.

"Oh? What news?" he asked.

"You're going to be a grandfather!" Byleth declared with a bright smile.

Jeralt nearly dropped his cup. "W-what?" He quickly put it down on the table. "You're pregnant?!"

"Huh? No, El is."

Jeralt stared at her. He could think of several questions, but the first one that popped out was: "With whose child?" Even though his daughter and the emperor were married, he was aware that certain practises were not uncommon. He just hadn't been aware of any consorts in the picture.

Byleth gave him a strange look. "Mine."

That brought Jeralt's previous pondering to a fiery crash, and another prominent question pushed forth: "How?"

"Uh... the goddess provides," Byleth said, and her cheeks turned pink.

Jeralt didn't really feel like that answered the question, but... "Never mind, I think I'd rather not know." Byleth nodded. She seemed relieved. "So... you're serious, then?" he asked. His daughter nodded again. He had to admit that becoming a grandfather was not something he had ever considered. Not because of who Byleth had married, he hadn't thought of it before then either. But becoming another woman's wife certainly hadn't made it seem more likely. _The goddess, huh?_

"Um... are you happy?" Byleth asked. She sounded a little nervous.

"Of course. Please forgive my surprise, kid. Congratulations." He smiled wide at her.

Byleth lit up. Always a lovely sight.

* * *

"I think she takes after your mother," Jeralt said. Holding his granddaughter was a weird experience. Not a bad one, just weird.

"Really?"

"Yup. Got the same ears. Then again, so do you, so I guess that makes sense." He smiled.

"My ears?" Byleth reached up, and gently tugged at one of them.

"Funny, I was thinking she reminds me of _my_ mother," Edelgard said with a smile of her own. Jeralt could definitely see some of Edelgard's features in there too. "But I agree on the ears. Not that I'd know of... actually, you haven't told us a lot about Byleth's mother."

"I'm not sure what to tell," he said. "She was the sweetest, kindest woman I ever met." Even all those years later he still missed her a lot.

"Well, how did you meet?" Edelgard asked.

"She was a nun at the monastery. Our duties had us regularly spending time in proximity of each other, and we ended up talking. There was a spark, I guess." The child was getting fussy, so he handed her back to Edelgard. "Sorry, I'm not much of a story-teller."

Byleth suddenly hugged all three of them together. "It's okay. We're not in any rush," she said.

That was right. They had time. No need to worry. Everything was fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Everything is fine.


End file.
